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This week’s conversations featured Jen Phillips on CVS’s decision to eliminate airbrushing from ads for beauty products it carries and Augie Ray on Visa’s new sonic brand, a two-note sound you’ll hear when completing financial transactions using your Visa card. Also in this episode…

• Internal communicators need to start explaining why their CEOs are paid so much
• Facebook video views have plummeted in the wake of its News Feed algorithm change
• The biggest investment company in the world has a message for business leaders: Contribute to society or look elsewhere for funding
• Airbnb is promoting its properties in countries President Trump characterized as “shithole countries”
• Augmented Reality hasn’t made much of a splash yet, except where it’s built into existing apps
• A podcast network is suing Twitter over trademark infringement
• Artificial Intelligence has outperformed humans when it comes to reading comprehension

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

About today’s guests

Jennifer Zingsheim Phillips is the director of marketing communications at CARMA. She previously ran 4L Strategies, consulting and providing content development for a variety of industries. She has worked in communications and public affairs for 20 years. Her background includes work in electoral politics, government, lobbying, and public affairs PR work.

Augie Ray is a Research Director covering customer experience for marketing leaders at Gartner. He has had a diverse career, including leading a digital experiential agency, directing social business at USAA and managing a global customer experience team at American Express. In his present role, Augie researches and advises clients on topics such as Voice of Customer, customer journey mapping, customer experience strategy and virtual reality.

Links from this episode

• If the CEO’s high salary isn’t justified to employees, firm performance may suffer
• The SEC’s guidance on CEO/employee pay ratio communication
• Facebook’s News Feed tweak hurts video views
• Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook post about the News Feed algorithm change
• This changes everything…or does it? How PR pros are planning for a new News Feed
• Buzzfeed responds perfectly to Facebook’s changes
• Augmented Reality is noRobots can now read better than humans, putting millions of jobs at risk longer a novelty
• Augmented reality is here to help you plan your Super Bowl trip
• BlackRock’s Message: Contribute to Society, or Risk Losing Our Support
• CVS to end airbrushing in ads for its beauty products
• Airbnb spending $100,000 to promote listings in Trump’s shithole countries
• Visa spent a year developing a signature sound
• TWiT is suing Twitter alleging breach of contract and copyright infringement

About Shel Holtz

Shel Holtz, ABC (Accredited Business Communicator), is director of Internal Communications at Webcor, a commercial general contractor headquartered in San Francisco. Before joining Webcor, Shel spent 21 years as principal of Holtz Communication + Technology. In addition to integrating technology into communications strategies, his expertise includes strategic communications planning, change management, organizational culture, business initiatives and communications research. Full bio